Hi all! I've had my hound Slink for a couple of weeks now, and since we have an unfenced yard, we're making it a priority to try to teach him to wait at the front door rather than try to push through. The problem is though that he's not picking up on it, despite me repeating the training dozens of times. What I do is this:
1) Leash up dog, get ready to go out. He'll be right by the front door at this point, excited to go outside.
2) Use my body to manoever him back 3 feet or so from the door, and block him there.
3) Say 'wait' in a low-ish, drawn-out voice,step back slightly for the door and reach for the door handle to begin opening the door.
4) If he starts to move forward, close the door (or stop reaching for the handle), use my body to push him back and repeat.
So maybe two or three times we've gotten him to pause for a noticeable fraction of a second when the door is open a crack. I'm taking this as a win when it happens, and saying 'ok go!' and letting him through if he's paused AT ALL. But the vast majority of the time, he just doesn't understand at all what I want. He tries repeatedly to get past me and get to the door when I'm blocking him.
Realistically, at this stage I don't think I can expect him to wait every single time we want to go through the door because we'll literally be there all day trying. Also my partner is not as good at being patient and doing this training every time, especially early in the morning when we're taking him out for his morning toilet break first thing. Is the fact that we aren't doing this training every single time going to mean he'll never learn, or will it just mean he learns slower? Does anyone have any tips for working with a dog that just won't wait? All the dog training guides I've read keep saying that this is a thing dogs pick up on really quickly! Well they haven't met my dog haha.
I don't know if it's easier to use a sit/lie down and wait combo rather than just having him stand there. We're still teaching him to lie down, but we haven't got that on a cue yet, so getting him to lie down and wait at the door is not something he can do just yet. I'm going to try adding a visual cue instead of just saying 'wait' because he isa very visual dog (even for a sighthound!), but I think the fundamental issue is that he's just not making the connection yet between his movements and the behavior of the door.